Telephone station set designs over the years have been primarily functional, with limited consideration given to their decorative aspects. More recently, however, a number of ornamental designs have become available to accommodate both the functional and decorative aspects that telephone users now demand. Numerous examples of novelty telephones are available, such as the MICKEY MOUSE, SNOOPY & WOODSTOCK, and WINNIE THE POOH phones, to name but a few. Undoubtedly additional characters will become popular, and the market for novelty telephones will grow. Such growth is not only a burden upon retailers who need to stock a full panoply of these telephones, but purchasers often tire of a telephone design long before its functional life is spent and thus obtain less than full value from their purchase.
In a copending application, Ser. No. 468,947, now abandoned, filed Feb. 23, 1983, a telephone stand was disclosed having a top surface suitable for mounting or supporting a decorative display. In an illustrative embodiment of the invention, the top surface of the telephone stand contains a recessed area for holding a decorative plate, which may support a figurine, a bust, a trophy, etc.
Thus, while attention has been paid to the decorative appearance of these telephones, the functionality has by and large remained unchanged from earlier telephones. These sets continue to use an electromechanical bell and clapper ringer or a piezoelectric sounder to alert the user that there is an incoming telephone call.
One manufacturer has announced an adjunct that is connected in series with a standard telephone and provides a repertoire of excerpts from popular tunes to perform the alerting function. While this provides the user with a different alerting signal, there is no symbiosis between the alerting signal and the set.
It is an object of this invention to enhance the personalization of a telephone having a mounted figurine, trophy or the like by including synthesized sound or voice alerting means that is associated with the mounted item.